A strange new world
by Doreh
Summary: A man suddenly finds himself on a beach with no memory of his previous life, his name included. He ventures forth to find civilization and to find where on earth he is, instead he happens across two traveling merchants. He must find out where he is and where he is from, all the while helping those who helped him. Enjoy.
Intense agony, it was all I could feel. It was as if I was being pushed through a meat grinder slowly. I thought my bones were breaking, being crushed underneath the incredible invisible pain. Suddenly nothing, I was floating. I couldn't see but the pain had stopped and the air stood still, I didn't dare take a breath.

All this only lasted mere seconds, maybe shorter, but for me it felt much longer, I'll never forget the pain or the intense relief after it so suddenly stopped. As fast as this relief went though it was quickly replaced by the feeling of falling and I suddenly realised I could open my eyes. Blue water was almost all I could see, with some yellow near the top of my vision but all that didn't matter to me much at the current moment; I was currently plummeting to what was probably my watery doom.

* * *

I opened my eyes again only to see the yellow expanse of a beach dominating my view, I was monumentally relieved that I somehow I hadn't died. I opened my mouth to take in a breath but got more sand in my mouth then air. I quickly shot up, coughing out the sand and finding energy where there should be none to running down to the water's edge and clean my mouth out. The water was extremely salty, but it defiantly beat the taste of sand. It was obvious it was an ocean I was looking out at; the sun being almost directly above me didn't give me much a sense of direction, but inland was better than being out here. Maybe I could find civilization and find out where the hell I was.

Before I could do that though I felt a breeze roll in, and I felt it everywhere, after falling out of the sky and eating sand it wasn't much of a surprise that I wasn't wearing any clothes. I quickly covered up as best I could but I just as quickly realised that there was no animal or person in sight, the place was barren as could be. I relaxed slightly and looked around for what could possibly be used as clothes. Some torn stained brown shorts had seemed to have washed up on the beach, presumably mine from when I fell out of the sky. Putting them on I scoured the area for other pieces of clothing with the only thing that was worth of note being a large piece of black cloth, big enough to just about be a roof for a two man tent. Picking it up I wrapped it around myself, protecting myself from the blazing sun, being comforted that the cloth wasn't at all covered in sand.

After scouring the beach for anything that may be of use I started to head in land, it luckily wasn't long before I managed to find a worn road, being quite close to the beach. Looking both ways to see if anyone was approaching I was disappointed to find that it was empty, although the if the groves in the road told me anything it was that it was a reasonably well travelled road, with most traffic headed to the right, seemingly away from the beach. There were also strange marks in the road, it was animal in nature but not any animal I knew of, with that said I didn't exactly have a large index of animal tracks to begin with but they defiantly didn't fit anything I knew of. Deciding to travel to where everyone else seemed to be going to be going I turned to my right and started walking, paying no mind to my feets angry protests.

* * *

I had to stop; I had been walking for the better part of 6 hours and unfortunately had not seen anyone the entire way. That wasn't to say I hadn't seen animals, or should I even call them animals? They weren't like any animals I had ever seen, or heard of. The animals reminded me of something, something from my childhood but what it was eluded me. That and my memory wasn't the best, in fact I could barely remember a thing at the moment. During the 6 hours I questioned myself as to where I had come from but it always seemed my memories were just out of reach as if something was toying with me.

I sat down at the base of a tree, ignoring the throbbing pains emanating from my feet, instead focusing on the questions I have asked myself. For the life of me I couldn't remember who I was, were I came from and even what I looked like eluded my memory. For all I knew I just came into existence; maybe I didn't start to live until 7 hours ago. That of course was false, the trees around me, the strange animals I saw and the odd feeling that I've read something like this before all tugged at the back of my head begging to be remembered; and yet – like before – those memories were locked away.

I laid down on the least rocky part of the ground, the sun now only peaking over the horizon with it's final breaths of daylight; I watched it disappear and with it brought the start of the night. I covered myself in my cloth and rolled into a ball, conserving as much heat as possible for the oncoming night.

* * *

I woke to something being poked into my back and what sounded like animals, although these two animals seemed to be having a conversation. It was weird to listen to, it was obvious they were talking about me, but I had no idea other than that of what they could possibly be talking about. I didn't dare move, my fear rooting me in place, unsure of what might happen if I move.

One of them seemed to grunt in approval and the other seemed to walk away from me for whatever reason. I heard the other one move closer to me, using its poking device this time in a less prodding way and a more "wake up" way. I didn't realise there even was a difference until that point.

I was still terrified but now less so, I figured if they had wished to harm me they would not be poking me. Still, some part of me told me to be cautions as they were animals – smart animals it seemed – and it was better to be safe than sorry. I swear I heard the one poking me sigh and before I could ask myself what it was planning to do I instinctively came up with a plan and started to execute it without thinking.

I shot up and pulled my cloth with me, startling the closer animal as it gave off a yelp. It was quickly obvious as I stared at it that it was just as unsure about me as I was with it, it had even dropped into what I assumed was a defensive stance. The animal was a bipedal canine with mainly blue and black fur with its torso a yellowish fur. It also had glistening silver spikes adorning parts of its body, large blue ears and black dangly bits on what seemed was the back of its head. Something also told me it was not an animal but a... a mon? The same something also told me that was not the full name and I was partially grateful of that, if I could remember what it's called and not my own name I would be annoyed at whoever was messing with my head, they could have at least given me something to cling onto.

Without letting its eyes off me it seemed to be shouting something over its shoulder to its partner. Although I feared what they're intentions might be, the sight of food in its partners orange hands was no mistake, and at the mere sight of it my stomach made a loud angry protest, annoyed it hadn't been fed in an unknown amount of time. I watched as the... mon I was closest to stifle a laugh to some degree. It was painfully obvious they weren't mindless animals, their behaviour gave off that much but with a glance over the canine's shoulder I spotted a wooden cart, no animal made things like that.

As I stood there watching its partner come closer to us with the food I got my first good look at it. It looked like an otter, if the otter had orange fur with a giant cream tear drop on its front with a smaller orange tear drop where a belly button might be. It also had a blue fin on the back of each hand and the tail I saw behind it was in fact two separate ones. However its most glaring feature was a giant yellow thing wrapping itself around the back its neck before coming down the side of the otter and disappearing behind it, probably to connect behind its back.

As the second mon came and stood next to the first they both studied me up and down although were visibly disappointed when it was clear they couldn't see much of me save the area around my eyes and my feet. It was then I realised how tall I was compared to these animals, I was a few meters away from them so I didn't realise I was looking down. For them I must seem huge because I estimated I was over half a meter taller than the canine which was slightly taller than the otter.

In that instant of what could be called a stare off, them with my eyes and me with their food I wondered how I knew basic measurements and animals off by heart and yet when trying to picture the animals I failed at doing so. The blue one reminded me of a canine but it was all I had to go off for a canine. It was strange to say the least.

I figured they were waiting for me to do something, sit down, run away or even attack maybe. I went with the simplest option and the option that would probably give me that succulent looking food so I sat down, with my eyes now being below their sight line. They quickly and visibly relaxed and they started to talk to each other, it was quiet and I obviously couldn't tell what they were saying but the blue canine was seemingly a lot unsure about the scenario then the orange otter was. The otter gave me what I assumed was a smile before ignoring the blue dog slight protests before walking over to me and holding out the food.

The blue canine accepted this but I could see it was ready to pounce on me at a moment's notice if I gave it any reason to. Thankfully I didn't as I slowly took the food presented to me, letting go of the section of cloth I was using to hide most of my face and the front of my body. If the two were startled or surprised they didn't show it although they did openly study what they could see and the pace at which they ate their food was slow and drawn out to allow for this study.

I coughed, grabbing both of their attentions to my face, unsure if they would even know what I say I continued with my planned question, "Do you know where I am?"

Both looked at me confused then at each other, my guess is neither had any idea at what I said. Well at least I tried. The blue dog now tried its turn at talking to me although my confused expression was enough to convey that I didn't have a clue what they were saying either.

"Grrw-w-wh-whaaat... i-is na-nam?"I watched in disbelief and confusion as the blue dog spoke, it was obviously having a hard time doing so; the otter also looked confused at what it said.

"Whaat is... name?" It asked with struggling difficulty, obviously not used to speaking like this but it was getting better at least. It also sounded feminie, although at the moment it wasn't a question I wasn't interested in asking or much cared about.

I thought about it for a second, I could make up a name for myself although I didn't have any names to use for that purpose. It was interesting at what I could and could not remember. I replied with a shrug and a shake of my head, making it clear I didn't know.

"Noo... name?" The blue dog asked in slight confusion, I simply shook my head and it started to talk to its partner about something. Knowing the general gist of it I continued to eat my bread and watch the two talked. Unsurprisingly the otter looked like it was much more concerned than the blue dog. that was not to say it was not concerned however.

"Not... mat-ter, k-come w-w-wis-with us" It told me before looking at its remaining bread, looking at me, giving the bread to me and making its way over to the wagon. I stood up to follow but the otter walked up to me instead. Without saying anything it grabbed my now exposed left hand and held it in its much smaller ones, I think it was trying to be comforting which was nice. I gave it a smile and automatically ruffled the fur on top of its head at the base of the frilly thing sticking out of it. I stopped once I realised what I was doing and removed my hand only to have the otter look up at me with wanting eyes. The blue dog on the other hand was watching me wearily but didn't look like it was about to pounce on me which was a plus.

As I made my way back onto the path I got my first good look at the cart. It had no other animals pulling it, so I guessed they must pull it as they walked, probably taking turns to do so. I couldn't see what was in the cart though; it was covered by a greying white tarp, anchored down in all four corners preventing it from flying off. Compared to me the cart wasn't very large, but it wasn't a surprise because the cart was almost defiantly built for their needs.

The blue dog seemed to be digging around in the back of the cart, its head under the tarp looking for something within its unknown contents. It poked its head out for a moment, seemingly sizing me up, at that moment I realised I hadn't put my makeshift clothes back on, but there really was no reason to do so now. After looking me up and down it dug its head back under the cloth, I looked at the orange otter for any clues but it simply cheerily smiled at me.

The blue dog suddenly pulled out something from the cart, snapping my attention back to the cart. It now held some scissors, and what looked like some thread, was it planning to sow something up? It gestured toward me, holding its spare hand out as if to ask me to give it something, but I didn't have anyt- Oh, the cloth I had wrapped around me was probably what it was asking for. Weighing the pros and cons I sighed and let go of the cloth, unwrapping it from my body and handing it to the dog.

For the first time since waking up on the shore I studied my body. Whatever I did in my previous life meant I was reasonably built, nothing to be too proud of but nothing to be ashamed of either. If that was the case why did I feel so, exposed? Granted I didn't have anything covering my upper body right now but at this point I felt like they weren't going to hurt me, and they didn't seem to be wearing any clothes either. Then again they resembled animals more than then I did, also it seemed to be hard wired into me to wear clothes, that much was certain.

The only thing that bothered me was that they kept staring at me, at any chance they got their eyes were trained on me. The more I thought about it the more it made sense, if I saw a creature I had never seen my entire life, an alien even, and it wasn't trying to kill me and I wasn't running away then I would probably be looking at it, its what I've been doing this last half hour. Huh, another unit of measurement that I know yet at the same time do not. I don't know how long half an hour is but it felt like that.

After an uncomfortable half minute of me looking at either the blue dog or the otter the otter slowly made its way over to the dog, talking in the language I couldn't understand. It seemed exited more than anything, talking then pointing at different parts of me, my arms, my torso, my legs and even my head. The blue dog just simply stood and listened, interjecting every so often to add something to their conversation. I just stood there, unsure what to do.

After a while it got boring trying to decipher what they were possibly talking about, looking around I found a good enough place to relax for now and so I made my way over to a fallen tree laid on it to stare up at the green canopy above me.

About 20 minutes had passed before they stopped, the otter looking extremely exited while the dog looked deep in thought about something. I made eye contact with the otter and it beckoned me over, pushing myself off the log I made my way over to the otter. It started to talk to me as if I understood it, seeing the confused look on my face it seemed annoyed before angrily barking at the blue dog, which then proceeded to sigh and roll its eyes. It then looked intensely at me and my curiosity was quickly replaced by fear as I watched the entirety of its eyes turn blue, that's not supposed to happen, right? Whatever it was my vision was quickly replaced my blackness, new unknown information being burnt into my brain.

* * *

I wasn't sure how long I was out for but the second I could open my eyes I shot up from the ground which startled the two mon. My eyes darted between the two, I don't seem to be hurt but what exactly did they do to me? Adrenaline was pumping through my veins and I wasn't entirely sure if I should bolt just yet, they did have my one possession.

The otter looked even more exited then before which only served to fuel my confusion, it turned to the blue dog and spoke in its language, although now I could understand it, "Did it work?!" It asked excitedly to the blue dog, its voice somehow giving away that it was a female.

"HOLY FUCK YOU JUST SPOKE." I yelled as I took a step back, that defiantly shouldn't be happening, maybe I wasn't awake just yet, or maybe I was, it all looked very real to me.

The otter turned back towards me, obviously not needing an answer for her previous question, "It did work!" she exclaimed before turning back to the blue dog, "You're the best!"

The otter turned back towards me and started to slowly make its way towards me its attitude changing so suddenly from exited to serious. It had its hands out in front of it to show it wasn't trying to hurt me, keeping low and moving slowly, probably to avoid making me bolt.

"Hey, everything is alright, we didn't hurt you, we simply... made some changes." It soothingly said while still making its way towards me.

I relaxed slightly but the rational side of me kept me on guard, "Then how the hell are you talking, or..." I shook my head in confusion, still not fully understanding what is happening, "how the hell am I understanding what you're saying."

"Impressive, I'll give you that. I'm surprised you figured it out so fast." The blue dog said to me, surprise clearly evident in its voice.

"So I can understand you, how can you understand me?"

"Well it's not too hard to explain but I would rather talk about when you don't look like you'll bolt at the slightest movement."

"Well I wouldn't be trying to bolt if I didn't just black out, or see your eyes turn blue."

"But now we can talk, yes? This makes communication much easier than trying to learn another language, besides, how was I supposed to warn you?"

I opened my mouth to protest once more, finding instead that no words came out, nor could I think of any counter arguments. I sighed and put my arms down; losing all desires to run from the mon.

"Can I just ask you a couple questions first? I'm curious." Asked the blue dog while the otter realised what was probably happening. I gave her a nod and waited for her to continue and it took her a while before she realised I was waiting. "Ah first off, I know you don't know your name so I don't know how much you know but do you know where you are from?" I shook my head and she continued. "Lastly, do you know what you are?" I nodded at that and told them I was human, happy I at least knew something. They didn't know what a human was though which was worrying.

"Alright then what now?" I asked after both sat there for an extended period of time thinking.

The blue dog snapped out from it and looked up at me then to my cloth, "Stand still." and with that started to work on the cloth.

The otter also came out of it and relaxed before walking up to me then around me scanning me up and down, shouting out measurements to the dog every so often.

I once again somehow knew what they were doing but still did not know what it was and now I could communicate and re-learn things I asked, "If you don't mind me asking, what exactly are you doing?"

"Taking your measurements and turning your piece of cloth into something better, with that said we haven't really made something as big as this for anyone before." The otter answered with before sizing me up again and calling out another measurement to the dog, "That said, do you know you have a special piece of cloth?"

I looked quizzically at the otter while it circled around me once more, calling out another measurement, "What do you mean special?" I asked before thinking about the piece of cloth, "I didn't see anything special about it."

The otter gave out the final measurement, taking my hand in its and pulling me towards the cart, "Well for starters you can't get it dirty." It said as it approached the cart, letting go of my hand and starting to dig around the inside of the cart, "Secondly, it'll keep you warm no matter what. They are both simple enchantments but you normally don't find two on the same piece of clothing, hence why it's special."

Its head came out of the cart, its arms holding what looked like large fluffy boots, "Here, you can have these; made them for a large gallade a while back; turns out they were not the ones he was looking for, kept them ever since." It handed them to me, while I inspected them it kept talking, "Nothing to special, they won't ever get worn, plus they're made so they are also extra comfortable."

I shrugged and put them on, only now realising how bruised my feet were from the previous day. I grimaced at the sight but I still put the boots on, trading the condition of the boots for my own comfort.

As I stood back up I realised my piece of cloth had been turned into a cloak, and was lying on the cart in front of me, waiting for me to take it, "Well are you going to take it or shall I put it back in the cart?" The dog asked, leaning on the cart near to the cloak, "I mean, it's not the best quality job but it's the best I could do in 10 minutes."

I nodded and thanked the dog, taking the cloak and putting it on, instantly feeling less exposed and warmer the second I put it on. It had a hood thankfully, although it seemed too large, even for me, covering most of my face including my eyes to a certain extent. It was very ominous indeed.

"Again, thanks, I really do mean it. By the way why are you two doing all this? I'm sure there must be reasons behind it, that or you are genuinely nice people." I asked, my rational side deciding to be cynical about all this.

The otter was about to say something but the dog interjected and shot it a look before speaking, "Well she would do this because she is genuinely nice," the blue dog said while pointing a paw at the otter, "but not so much me. You see we have had a bit of trouble with people robbing our wagon both on the road and when we set up shop; my offer is work for us for a month to pay us back. Your size as it is, is intimidating enough; you'd scare away most Pokémon before they even thought about robbing us. Also those boots and cloak aren't exactly cheap, plus because we travel we can hopefully find out where you're from, or what you are for that matter. What do you say?" She held out a paw, intending to shake on the deal.

I paused and looked at her for a second, the word Pokémon ringing around inside my head, I was calling them mon and I felt like Pokémon was what I was trying to get at this entire time. It felt weird because I was now surprised at how I didn't remember that word, it was so... close to me somehow like one of those words you'd swear would be impossible to forget.

The blue dog coughed and bought be out of my thinking, I had already made my decision on what to do before retreating into myself and thinking about the word and so I reached out and shook the outstretched paw, sealing the deal.

The dog dusted her hands, seemingly looking around for anything they may have left behind before turning to me, "Well let's get going, you're the first to pull the cart by the way," she looked me up and down and grinned, "shouldn't be too hard for you." She said as she pushed off from the back of the cart, already walking in front of me. I shrugged and grabbed the two handles that were used to pull the cart and started walking, finding it pleasantly light.

We all walked in silence, the otter sometimes stopped momentarily to pick something up or to stare at something before catching back up with us. I was alone with my thought for the first time today, I could finally think, and with that multiple questions arose.

"You know," I spoke up, breaking the silence, "I have a lot of unanswered questions, do you mind answering them?" I asked the dog, the otter being too preoccupied.

She shrugged before speaking, "Sure, I'll answer your questions, depending on what they are that is."

I thought for a moment, thinking about the all the questions I've been begging to ask for some time now, "Alright, first question, what are you two?"

She chuckled out loud, somehow finding it funny, "I forgot you probably didn't know what we were since you don't even know your own name, and I think I just assumed you did. Well for your information we are both Pokémon, I'm assuming your one as well but I'm not so sure..." she trailed off, obviously thinking about that prospect before I caught her attention again and she started talking again, "Sorry. Well I'm a Lucario, fighting and steel type, my partner is a Floatzel, and she is a pure water type."

I nodded at what she was saying, although it ended up creating more questions than answers, "Thanks, I guess." I had a mental mind blank before my questions came back to me, "Um, second question, how did you learn English? I mean you attempted to talk it back there, it was rough but I could understand you."

"This was what I was waiting for you to ask, I'll knock out another question while I'm answering this one as well." she said before stopping, probably collecting her thoughts, "Basically I read your aura and learned things from it, one being your language. That's also how you understand me right now; I altered your aura in such a way that I implanted our speech onto your brain. Although making other Pokémon understand what you were saying was much harder, you are speaking "English" at the moment but to us you sound like you are speaking our tongue." She stopped talking and looked and my face, confusion etched into it, "Want a minute to think it through before I continue or is that enough for today?"

It took me a moment to realise what she said but when I did, I responded with, "Yea, enough about that for today, gave me headache thinking about it."

With that she turned back to the road and we all kept walking in silence, the only thing worth of note being the Floatzel picking things up and constantly stopping to look at things. Wait what were their names? I'm going to be travelling with them for a month and I don't even know their names, gah, stupid thing to do.

"I just realised I have no idea what your names are, I mean if you have any cause I hadn't heard either of you use one yet." I asked the Lucario.

The Lucario looked back at me an cocked an eyebrow before turning back to the road, "Well I know what you mean by names, most Pokémon use them when addressing Pokémon close to them but on the whole its normally just your species name. It's not often you get two of the same Pokémon standing right next to each other so it's not much of a problem. So just call us by our species, we'll understand. It also means I guess your name is now human? I doubt we'll meet another one so there isn't a problem there."

I shrugged and continued to walk, it was how they did things around here and if it worked then it worked. It still felt foreign to me and used the logic that I couldn't remember how we did things exactly from where I came from other then the fact that people's individual names were important.

I remembered the last question I wanted to ask, one that I was slightly embarrassed to even think about asking in the first place but I couldn't not know the single most important piece of information I could hold. "Hey, final question, it might seem odd but uhh... what does my face look like?"

Lucario gave me a quizzical look before her facial features softened, "It's an odd question but when I think about why you're asking I really do feel sorry for you. Where to start? Well first off you have light brown fur but with the majority on top of your head some around what I assume is your jaw and mouth and yet it doesn't look like fur. You also have very green eyes which is very unusual for a Pokémon. That's about all I can describe, I don't really know how to do the rest."

"Thank you," I said genuinely, "I don't think you know how much that means to me, I can start to rebuild myself." I bowed my head to her and as I looked up I swore I could see her cheeks take on a slightly reddish hue although why that happens was on the tip of my tongue.

We all continued the walk in silence with the two sometimes getting tired and taking a break on the cart as I pulled it with the entire convoy stopping when I got tired, probably because I couldn't sit on the cart with them pulling it although I heavily suspected it wasn't because they couldn't pull me but because the cart would break.

During the breaks we had talks where I learnt small things about how the world worked that sometimes continued on as we walked. I learnt the currency which was uncreatively called 'poke', what typings were along with their strengths and weaknesses, what a 'move' was and how to use them and what typing I might be. I can safely say that they were entirely confused when I couldn't use 'the most basic moves' which apparently any Pokémon can learn. They told me they thought I might be a normal or psychic type but nothing so far supported that. I also felt like bringing up the subject of meat but was unsure as to how they would react, it seemed that they lived fine off non meaty things like berries and bread but I felt like meat was probably important for me. The last thing we talked about was how much water and food I consumed, apparently it was a lot more than they expected but because Floatzel could store water in her body and berries were plenty it apparently was not a problem. I didn't want to voice my concern of where Floatzel's water came from and why I didn't particularly want to drink it.

After that we walked in mutually enjoyed silence, for me at least I could now think about what this world held for me and why I was here. Was I some sort of hero destined to save the world, was it some sort of freak accident or maybe it was something sinister? Whatever the reason was I didn't let it bother me, it would be pointless to do so and instead I simply thought about what kind of Pokémon I might be.

Lucario finally broke the hour long silence as we crested a hill and in the distance I could see a town on the edge of a river. "The town is coming up in 30 minutes as you can probably see, stick with us and you'll be fine, just don't take your hood off, I'm not sure how other Pokémon will react." I nodded and pulled up my hood so it covered as much as I could while still being able to see.

Lucario called for Floatzel to come and walk by the cart or sit on the cart; apparently she was worried about robbers because they apparently struck while leaving or entering a town or city. Floatzel lost her bubbly attitude in an instant at the mention of robbers but visibly brightened up once she saw me again. Was I really that much of a deterrence for robbers?

If it wasn't for the looming threat of robbers I might have found us walking down a small hill to the town in the last dredges of day to be calming and relaxing but alas with the mere mention of robbers it put us all on edge. It made it even worse when we all knew I couldn't use any moves and it was really only the possibility of what unknown Pokémon I might be that kept any potential robbers at bay. When I put it like that I would be the one relying on my new companions for defence.

* * *

 **Feedback on suggestions or slight errors would be appreciated. This is all self-edited so things you spot I probably missed.**

 **This is also a rewrite of another story I did on here that like less than 100 people will remember, I was going to do a PMD but felt like I should continue or delete this one before hand, I decided to continue it.**

 **Thanks for reading.**


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